Free keelboats I guess and coins in a jar

[Ixneigh]

I took a tour of the abandoned keelboats on the E side of Rodriguez Key. There was a new one, maybe 35 feet with faded red paint. Double spreaders. up against mangroves in 4 feet of water. Had some chain rode out, but I didn’t look at what was on the end, obviously nothing impressive though. No sails no canvass, not a bad looking boat. The other one, which was a short distance away, was now half filled with water from being abandoned all year. A Pearson perhaps, from the seventies. Like the other, she was stripped of sails, which were down below soaking up seawater. Boat appeared to be in ok shape except for a broken saloon window. No hardware was missing. Rigging intact. The boat could be bailed, ungrounded and sailed, probably.
There was a Cuban migrant boat near by. This was made of large blocks of foam, wrapped in blue vinyl tarp material. A large Daiwoo engine sat in a very well made mounting, towards the back. On boarding, I found the engineers tool kit, rusting among the debris of discarded clothing, water bottles and torn backpacks. There was an unusual hammer, with a makeshift handle, that I collected. The other tools were pretty rusty. There were small jars with coins in them. One of them had spilled its contents which, on washing them off over the side, proved to be Cuban coins all of the same type. I thought they might be some Russian coins maybe. I returned the coins to the small jar and left them there. Curiously, the boat had no fuel tank. Maybe someone before now had taken it. The boat would probably do 12 knots with an engine like that making the trip from Cuba in about 12 hours with the gulf stream current.
There was a Bermuda 40 at anchor farther off the island, and some kind of a large motor sailer. All these boats have probably been dropped off by the owners of slips when the rent payment was missed. Not sure why this particular location though. The dinghy I was using was one I made for the macgregor, since it tows at high speed, and at sailing speed, is light on the painter. Also a very nice rowing dinghy, which for me is priceless. before I returned to my Mac, I took a dip in the pleasantly warm waters where the weekenders gather on the sand bar out front of the island. I sometimes anchor there over night in the slightly deeper spot behind the sandbar.


Ix

[NiceAft]

Very interesting post. Thanks for sharing.